Beauty and Chaos: The Organic Aesthetics of Edu Aguiar´s Entropy

Entropia (Entropy) is the measure of disorder of a system, but the third album of Brazilian singer/songwriter and guitar player Edu Aguiar is far from chaos. The “late musician” (as he calls himself) from Rio de Janeiro presents a real tribute to the best of Brazilian popular music (MPB) tradition: elegant melodies, inspired lyrics and that irresistible bossa- nova-jazz touch. Enjoy!

(GF) When did your relationship with music start?

(EA) My parents were lovers and listened to all kinds of music. As a teenager I already wanted to work with music, but ironically I only had the courage to make my debut after my forties. I was very discouraged by my father, who used to say that an artist in Brazil was doomed to starve. Despite of that, during high school I started composing alone or together with a friend. I recorded the melodies of my songs on cassette tapes and kept them. All my albums have some material from those tapes and I still have a lot of unreleased recordings that I plan to use in future projects.

(GF) What are your musical references?

(EA) Peter Gabriel, Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, REM and Pearl Jam come right in mind. Big Brazilian icons, such as Joao Gilberto, Nara, Tom and Vinicius, and Paulinho da Viola, Edu Lobo, Chico, Caetano, Gil, Milton. And also recent names in music, such as Livia Nestrovski, among many others.

(GF) Tell us a little about the history of the production of the new CD, "Entropia" (Entropy)?

(EA) After my previous album, "Dias de Blumer", I already had the new project in mind, and decided that it would be all as acoustic as possible, preferably with strings, voice and percussion. With this concept in mind, I invited my friend Mingo Araújo, a renowned percussionist; because I knew that the work I wanted would only be possible with his rhythmic texture. He was also the one responsible for bringing Camila Matoso to our team, an interpreter with the kind of voice, attitude and personality required to perform for the first time a song that had never been heard by anyone before. She sings 12 out of the 14 songs on the album. And there is also an instrumental tune and a song performed by guest singer Zélia Duncan. Geraldo Azevedo, Fred Martins and Eugenio Dale are also on the vocals. My first minimalist concept was replaced by a more organic aesthetic, but I think we quite kept the original spirit of the project.

(GF) Future Projects?

(EA) I have two new projects, one already in progress, similar to "Entropia", with some new partners. The other one is still a draft: an album with songs sang in Spanish, co-authored with several South American artists. I hope to release it in 2021 and I might even spend some time abroad to make this project happen. Let's see what comes. Independent production is always a little box full of surprises.

Written by Geisa Fernandes - Brasil / Rio de Janeiro

The repertoire of this jazz singer and awarded songwriter from Rio de Janeiro reveals influences of Brazilian popular music, the French chanson and Latin American rhythms, but most of all, Geisa Fernandes is a jazz singer. Billie Holiday aficionada (back in college folksused to call her "Lady Doc"), this PhD holder and Comics researcher wasaformer vocalist of several bands in São Paulo.

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